Lisa Marchiano

Join a respected Jungian analyst for a deep dive into the emotional and symbolic journey of motherhood. Motherhood is the true hero’s journey—which is to say that it can be as harrowing as it is joyful, and enlightening as it is exhausting. For Jungian psychoanalyst Lisa Marchiano, this journey is not just an adventure of diaper bags and parent-teacher conferences, but one of intense self-discovery. In Motherhood, Marchiano draws from a deep well of Jungian analysis and symbolic research to present a collection of fairy tales, myths, and fables that evoke the spiritual arc of raising a child from infancy through adulthood. After all, this kind of storytelling has always been one of the most important conduits of humanity’s collective wisdom—and Marchiano provides each tale alongside keen insights into the timeless archetypes they represent. Balanced with real-life case stories from Lisa’s own practice and in-depth questions for personal reflection, Motherhood explores how events like pregnancy, the calamities of childhood, and the empty-nest experience are invitations to an adventure into the wild frontier of your own soul. Here you will discover: • How the challenges of motherhood send you on journeys into your innermost source • Seeing the value of conflict with your child even while working to solve it • “The dark passage” of confronting and dispelling the energy of childhood wounds • “The thirteenth fairy”—how to recognize when we are resisting inconvenient or uncomfortable truths • Understanding how anger, rage, and aggression arise in parental relationships • Recognizing the ways that you have been taught to ignore your deepest instincts • How to navigate the inevitable periods of grief that accompany your child’s many life changes • Why much of successful mothering requires surrendering your sense of control With Lisa’s gentle but straightforward guidance, you’ll return from this inner journey in possession of the treasured knowledge needed to clarify your values, embrace your disowned parts, and claim the mantle of motherhood in the full bloom of your empowerment.

Facing and Finding Yourself

Motherhood

A renowned Jungian analyst shares a call to action for women who dream of reuniting with their brilliant, creative, and fiercely independent nature.

Within every woman lies a powerful a vibrant, sizzling spirit that lives life to the fullest. For so many of us, the burdens of responsibility, caretaking, and social expectations cause us to bury this essential part of ourselves under six feet of niceness. Yet as Jungian analyst Lisa Marchiano says, “Our inner flame of embodied wisdom, sharp-witted cunning, burning passion, and empowered confidence is never truly extinguished.” With The Vital Spark, she invites us on an immersive journey to reclaim the split-off parts of ourselves that enliven and rejuvenate us―and allow us to become who we were meant to be.

Combining personal stories, intercultural mythology, and guidance for inner exploration, Marchiano shares invaluable resources for breaking free from the conditioning that has kept us confined to rigid roles and muffled the sound of our souls. Here she invites us to explore eight core aspects of shrewdness, disagreeableness, desire, trickiness, sexuality, anger, authority, and ruthlessness. Each chapter reinforces the truth of our relentlessly human narrative in the truest sense―allowing us to retrieve our “outlaw” energies, our discarded talents, and the deepest parts of our authentic selves.

“When we try to domesticate our wild, assertive, and liberated spirit,” says Marchiano, “she flies away to some shadowy part of our soul, where she waits for us to find her again. Though she can be a bit savage and uncivilized, she is also the very best of us―and what we need to become whole.” The Vital Spark is a guide to recovering our courageous inner spirit so we can access her wisdom, her fire, and her burning aliveness.

The Vital Spark

Stella O'Malley

Sasha Ayad

Being the parent of a gender-questioning child is confusing. You want to do what's best for your child, but doctors and therapists might make recommendations that conflict with your instincts as a parent, the person who best knows your child's unique history, challenges and struggles. Do you immediately affirm a newly professed gender identity, watch and wait, or pursue some other path? While many books have been written for parents who choose to facilitate their child's gender transition, there are almost no books for parents who do not think that social or medical transition is the best option for their child. Written by Sasha Ayad, Lisa Marchiano and Stella O'Malley – three mental health professionals who collectively have decades of experience working with trans-identified adolescents and their families – When Kids Say They're Trans is a resource designed explicitly for those parents who do not think that hasty affirmation or medicalization is the best way to ensure the long-term health and well-being of their child. It is also for those who simply aren't so sure about the best course of action and want to learn the facts before committing to a particular approach. At a time when schools, institutions and governments increasingly promote ideas about gender that confuse children and even encourage kids to keep secrets from their parents, the authors celebrate parental love and engagement as the bedrock that children need to move out into the world. As the authors make clear, parents who have successfully helped their children navigate gender distress without resorting to surgery and hormones have done so by actively taking the reins – not by reflexively outsourcing this responsibility or waiting until they found the ideal therapist or doctor. When Kids Say They're Trans tells you all you need to know as a parent to help your child struggling with gender issues – and will give you the confidence to trust your own instincts as you guide and support your child on the path toward growth, acceptance and maturity.

Lisa Marchiano

About

Books

Join the club